Prime Minister Stephen Harper landed in Kandahar March 12 for a three-day surprise visit to Canadian troops. It was his first trip abroad since the electoral victory of the Conservative Party in January.

His action underlined a shift in Canadian military and foreign policy that is supported by all the parliamentary parties in Ottawa.

Harper said his government’s troops were there to defend “Canada’s national interests” against “terrorist” threats from al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

“I don’t think there’s a better example in decades of Canada really standing up, going to the front line and articulating our values,” he said. “Developing democracy, advancing the rights of the women, and the education of children. These are great Canadian values.”

During his trip Canadian soldiers who have been severely wounded, and relatives of soldiers who died in Afghanistan recently, came out in favor of the presence of Canadian troops there.

Leaders of the Liberal Party, whose government sent the troops to Afghanistan in February 2002, have expressed continued support for their presence there.

Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party, a labor party with social-democratic leadership, said on March 3 that Canadian soldiers “put their lives on the line to serve our country, and to further the pursuit of peace, justice, and democracy around the world.”

The Bloc Quebecois, which favors Quebec independence, said in a March 6 press release that it “does not in the least put into question the legitimacy of the mission entrusted to Canadian troops in Afghanistan.”

Richard Hillier, who leads Canadian forces as Chief of the Defense Staff, visited the Globe and Mail’s editorial board on March 2. General Hillier, the paper’s editors wrote the following day, “must lead the transformation of the military from an underfunded, underequipped Cold War relic…to a modern force that can rebuild failed states and fight insurgents in places such as Afghanistan.” We are coming “out of a decade of darkness,” Hillier said.

The combat experience gained by Canadian troops around Kandahar, their biggest combat experience since the Korean war, is at the heart of this transformation of the Canadian army. It is a key element of Ottawa’s response to growing competition from Washington and other imperialist powers.

Under both Liberals and Conservatives, the Canadian government has acted to defend the interests of its ruling class against their rivals in the framework of Ottawa being a secondary imperialist power.

The new Conservative Party government seeks to deepen collaboration with the U.S. military, in particular through military alliances such as NATO and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Harper said his government might reverse the previous government’s refusal to be part of a U.S. antimissile shield.

At the same time, Harper is pushing for Ottawa to play a more prominent and independent military role abroad, and the Afghanistan mission is key to this effort. His government also promised to increase military budgets and—against Washington’s opposition—to defend Canadian control of the Arctic seaways.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home